Linda’s Thoughts – A Very Good Raw

It’s not often when Raw is better the night after a pay per view, but that’s exactly what happened this week. I’m not even going to waste my time talking about Survivor Series. I thought it was one of the worst pay per views in a while, and with the exception of both team matches, HBK/JBL and Orton and Batista the show was really bad. The main event with John Cena vs. Chris Jericho was nothing more than a Raw main event, yet it was still good, just not exceptionally good. Triple vs. Kozlov and the Casket match with Taker vs. Big Show were the two worst matches of the night. I’m getting dramatic here, but how dare Vince put Kozlov into the title picture when all this guy has done for almost a year is face low mid carders and in a matter of a few seconds squash them. Kozlov showed that he didn’t belong there and I hope any plans of continuing the Kozlov push is over. Okay so now that you know my thoughts on the Survivor Series I want to go right to Raw, which I thought, was a very good show.

Even though I didn’t put a column out last week, I was very happy with Raw in Manchester, England. I thought it was a really good show, but I thought this Monday’s show was even better. While there were some things that I didn’t care for all in all I thought Raw was a very strong and entertaining show. Let me quickly tell you what I didn’t like, and I might as well start with Mr. Kennedy….Kennedy. What WWE superstar reminds you of Barack Obama, yeah that was the segment. Oh my God are they kidding me? Not only was the video absolutely stupid to watch, but also even Kennedy looked totally uncomfortable and out of place during all of this. Wow it’s funny now that Kennedy has made a WWE film Vince now wants to get his face out there. And I guess in Vince’s eyes no matter how pathetic the segment is Kennedy is going to take part in it. This was just horrible. The one match that I really thought was weak was the number one contender spot for the I.C. title with Kofi Kingston vs. Kane. There was nothing to this match at all; the chemistry was definitely missing here. And to add to this Stephanie comes out and tells Kane that he gets a title match with John Cena next week if he stops attacking Kingston. I don’t know if you noticed the crow reaction, oh wait there wasn’t any, because the thought of a Cena/Kane title match means nothing to most fans.

Now you know what would be funny? Watching Goldust and Santino interact on the mic for a while and not in the ring. How many more times is Vince going to keep bringing Goldust back? I’ll bet you he won’t last long this time around, and again if you noticed the fans really showed nothing when he came out for his match against Santino. I’m telling you guys that if you have them on the mic I think the humor would flow with these two, and then after a few weeks have them take it to the ring. This was another bland segment, but at least it didn’t last long. I know I keep popping with complaints but really I did like the show a lot. Batista did one of those interviews that I hate. He put over his opponent, John Cena. I don’t care if it’s Cena, Jericho, HBK or anyone else, I hate when creative has the guy praising his opponent. Batista came off like he was the President of the John Cena fan club. I want to see some hostility; I want to see some fire in Batista, not an easygoing guy complimenting the World Champion.

And finally I hated the whole Cena promo before he attacked Chris Jericho. I had no problem with Cena being out there in the middle of so many fans, that was cool. I even thought I was cool when he walked down through the crowd shaking hands. It was the crap that Vince had him say that totally reminded me of why I can’t take Cena the panderer. I didn’t need to hear about how the fans spend their hard earned money, and how they have passion and that if it wasn’t for them they wouldn’t exist. I wish Vince would remember all of that when he pushes guys like Snitzky and Kozlov. If he believed what he had Cena say then those guys would never be on TV as much as they are, because those are the guys the fans don’t want to see week in and week out. I just hated the YOU GO GET EM lecture and Jericho hit it perfectly when he talked about Cena the panderer. I immediately said you go Chris. Well I didn’t say it that way, but that whole Cena rah rah stuff really got to me. Now his attack on Jericho I liked a lot, that I was fine with. I wish we would have gotten less talk and more action from Cena. So the Cena promo thumbs down, but the attack on Chris Jericho a big thumbs up.

Now onto more pleasant things. I kind of liked the “argument” between Stephanie and Shane. You know we have seen this all before, but this didn’t go on too long and I thought they did a nice job getting the show under way. I will say this though. Just like her father, too much of Stephanie is not a good thing. I don’t need to see her more than maybe twice during a show, more than that can be too much, so I hope that Steph will not follow in Vince’s footsteps and instead she will keep a low profile each week. HA HA like that’s going to happen. The opening match with Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels vs. The Miz and Morrison was really good. In fact I liked it just as much as the team HBK match the night before. This match had plenty of action and I have to say it was my favorite match of the night. And along with this very good match I thought JBL teasing us about a deal offered to Michaels was quite interesting. I have no idea what this could be about, but hopefully this could be the making of a very good angle. Okay granted Snitzky vs. CM Punk was really all Snitzky until the end. I mean Punk had to really go that extra mile to beat Snitzky for a chance at the I.C. title. But what I liked about this segment was William Regal not only adding his opinion about what was going on in the ring, but Regal had the most intense look on his face while he was watching CM. Hey I would be more than happy to have a nice feud between Regal and Punk. It was Regal and Punk’s win that really worked for me during this match.

The triple threat match with Batista vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho for number one contender for the World title came off well, and Jericho winning was no surprise to me. I figured we would get a rematch. Not only did I like this but also I thought Cody Rhodes and Manu shooting daggers at Orton after the loss played out very well. I got a kick out of Kelly Kelly, and DX pimping the Christmas merchandise, but I will be honest and tell you a few things puzzled me during this segment. First I couldn’t understand how Triple H good be in such fine form after losing his title the night before. Also since he’s married to Steph and the fans know that, how come he didn’t go and see her and I don’t know discuss what happened earlier when she and Shane got into it. I know I’m being very picky here but those things just hit me, but other than questioning a few things I really liked seeing all three here. So even though I started out with a lot of negativity, I really thought this show came off very entertaining. It’s nice to have back-to-back decent Raw’s and I look forward to next week’s show. I will leave you with a Happy Thanksgiving to all you here in the states, and I will do my best to return over the weekend with thoughts on Smackdown.